The combination of wind, rain and flooding that hit Honduras in 1998 was a unique catastrophe to be expected only every 200 years or so. It was an immediate human disaster that cost thousands of people their lives and made many others homeless. At the same time it was a severe blow to the long-term development of Honduras as much of the countrys infrastructure was swept away in a few days, including most of the important bridges. In this situation it was natural for the international community to come to assistance and that included Swedish Sida. In order to save valuable time, Sida applied an unconventional working procedure, bypassing some of the normal formalities. The bridge construction could start quickly by the Swedish companies SWECO and SKANSKA. Beside the humanitarian objective aiming at facilitating rescue work and rehabilitation, another main objective was to restore the countrys infrastructure in order to allow economic development.